


we’ve come upon this place by lost ways

by palamig



Category: Fruits Basket
Genre: BFFs on a hike, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 21:09:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18507139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palamig/pseuds/palamig
Summary: “I think we’re lost.” Kakeru declares with a huge smile in his face.Yuki doesn’t know why he agreed to this. He hates hiking. He knows what it’s like walking around the forest for leisure. There are mosquitoes that bite at your feet, bugs that fall into the collar of your shirt. You have to plow through an endless sea of foliage partially wet from the rainstorm two days ago. There’s mud on your feet, and sand in your hair. He can go on and on.And yet here he was, climbing up some mountain trail with the one of last people he’d willingly go on any outdoor trip with.





	we’ve come upon this place by lost ways

“I think we’re lost.” Kakeru declares with a huge smile in his face.

Yuki doesn’t know why he agreed to this. He hates hiking. He knows what it’s like walking around the forest for leisure. There are mosquitoes that bite at your feet, bugs that fall into the collar of your shirt. You have to plow through an endless sea of foliage partially wet from the rainstorm two days ago. There’s mud on your feet, and sand in your hair. He can go on and on.

And yet here he was, climbing up some mountain trail with the one of last people he’d willingly go on any outdoor trip with. Kakeru wields his special cozy spot in third place against the runner up, Ayame, and the repeat, possibly forever, defending champion, Kyo.

“I guess this is the last time we’ll be seeing each other, everyone.” Kakeru has taken the habit of talking to trees. Yuki seriously contemplates the possibility of leaving him here, “It’s been a good 2 hour climb. If I die, Yunyun has my permission to eat my body. I’m sure he’ll do the same. Right, Yunyun?”

“Never.” Yuki answers firmly and lifts himself up on a particularly large boulder, “You are not going anywhere near my body when I die.”

“ _Wow_. And right after I took the time to plan this special hiking trip just for the two of us to solidify our already tight, unbreakable friendship. Sometimes, Yunyun, I think you’re hurting me on purpose.”

They continue walking through wild shrubs and running creeks. Through dusty trail ways and underneath the looming shadow of gigantic trees that were several decades old. Yuki realizes that the mountain is much larger than he expected. It was easy to get lost here with all its winding trails and pathways that lead to nowhere.

“Hey.” Kakeru’s pointing to a thin pathway that broke from the wider main road they had intended to follow, winding into an unknown part of the forest, “Where do you think that goes?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should stick to the main path-”

“You only live once!” Kakeru yells, and before Yuki can stop him, the boy makes a fast dart into the tiny trail.

Yuki sighs, lifts his backpack more firmly on his shoulders and realizes he doesn’t really have much choice but to follow. He takes a breath and jogs toward his companion.

“I just realized.” Kakeru says when their paces match again, “We’re so far away from civilization, no one will hear us if we shouted.”

It hits him more deeply than he expected.

Yuki trails his eyes through the long, dark wood up to where the branches met the sky, as if each tree in this dense, labyrinth of a forest was a prisoner reaching out for something beyond this darkness. For something far away. He knows what that feels like more than anything. To be lost. To be alone. To cry for help, for attention, for anything but no one is listening. To feel as if there was no more hope of escape. He no longer thought about it often, but each time he does, he still felt the same, numbing pain in his chest brought about by painful memories, by scars that will heal, but will never leave his skin.

“Hey, check it out.” Kakeru snaps him out of his thoughts.

Yuki blinks away the surprising wetness in his eyes. He returns to his noisy companion, his red backwards cap and his North Face backpack that Yuki’s pretty sure is filled with nothing but chocolate wafers and soda that’s already gone warm. Kakeru’s pointing to a clearing in the distance where the first few tendrils of sunlight were starting to slip between the last remaining dark trees of the forest.

“Race you to the top!” Kakeru yells, and without warning he starts sprinting. Yuki chases after him, but for once in his life, it didn’t feel like a real competition.

They get to the top at the same time, sweating bricks, and out of breath.  

“Cheat!” Yuki says in between breaths, “You started without me!”

Kakeru’s cluching his knees, wiping sweat from his forehead with the towel around his neck and laughing. Kakeru turns to fix his eyes at their destination.

“Look, Yunyun.”

Yuki follows the trail of his eyes and ends in a breathtaking sight. Beyond the cliffs was the misty blue mountain range and the clouds rolling like soft cotton beneath them. A strong gust of wind blew past them and it smelled like pine and wood—like everything that’s raw and pure and uncorrupted.  

“Hey, Yunyun.” Kakeru says from beside him, “Do you know why the sun always rises?”

“Why?”

“Because everyone deserves another chance.”

Yuki looks up at the sky. It was the same, blue sky that he’d been looking at all his life. But this time he wasn’t the small, helpless boy, searching the sky for the kind of love that was never given to him. Life was much better now, much kinder than it had been all those years ago. He closes his eyes, thinks to himself a small, soft prayer that he hopes would travel back in time, to the him many years ago, to tell him that: _yes, you will soon find your way out of this forest._

“Okay, Yunyun. On the count of three-”

“-wait, what-”

“- _one, two, three_! _Smile_!”

 _Click_!

Kakeru’s laughing behind his camera, “Yunyun looks so happy in this picture, I might have to print it, laminate it and post it up at the bulletin board next week for everyone to see. Hold on, let me send this to your brother-”

As fast as lightning, Yuki swipes the phone from Kakeru’s hands.

“Okay, okay. I get that you wanna take my picture, jeez. Take good ones, okay? ‘cause I’ve already thought of some cool poses on the way here.”

Yuki sighs but he discovers that wasn’t really angry. Kakeru’s backing up against a large boulder that sat at the tip of the cliff. But they never got to take a proper picture because he kept changing positions and asking Yuki which ones looked the best.

“Stop moving around so much. You’re going to fall. And it’s hard to take a picture like this.” Yuki says blandly from behind the camera. Kakeru grins and holds his fingers up in a peace sign.

They took a total of thirty pictures. Most were of Kakeru in all kinds of poses, but there were some of Yuki staring into the distance with a soft smile on his face, and some of the two of them with wide grins and with the cliffs, the sky, and the mountains behind them.

When they were done, Yuki took out a flower-printed picnic mat from his backpack and spread it out on the grass for them to sit. He rummaged through a whole pile of things—mosquito repellent, a thermos with cold water, sunblock, two freshly washed white towels, tissues, extra clothes, a pouch of medicine—and from the very bottom of his backpack produced a container of warm triangle sandwiches wrapped around in a baby blue flower-printed handkerchief.

“Looks like mommy went all out with your stuff, huh.” Kakeru makes a grab for one of the sandwiches. He bites into it and hums in delight.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” Yuki says but there was no bite to it at all. Tohru had been more excited than he was when she learned he was going on this hike with Kakeru. She stayed up all night packing his things and preparing his food. She even woke up at 3:30 in the morning just to see them both off. Yuki smiles absently at the thought. This is what a mother’s love feels like.

“I’ve been thinking.” Kakeru says from in front of him with a mouth full of food and one leg tucked underneath him and the other outstretched, “I don’t mind getting lost. I mean, we all get lost at least once or twice in life, right? Sometimes you just can’t help it. That’s just the way life is.”

Kakeru is full of his own struggles too. Everyone in this world is. Whether it was the same level of pain Yuki experienced or not—it didn’t matter. Everyone has their own forest they’re trying to find a way out of.  

“But you know what? Life’s not so bad when you got good people by your side.” Kakeru’s eyes are twinkling, and Yuki catches it and discovers that every last bit of darkness in his heart has left, replaced with nothing but gratitude.

They sat side by side watching as the sun rose over the sleepy city with triangle sandwiches in their hands and warmth in their hearts.

* * *

“ _I feel as though we were never strangers, you and I, not even for a moment_.” — Friedrich Nietzsche.

**Author's Note:**

> [cross posted on tumblr!](http://palamig.tumblr.com/post/184266762105/weve-come-upon-this-place-by-lost-ways)


End file.
